LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists studying the effects of the psychedelic chemical in magic mushrooms have found the human brain displays a similar pattern of activity during dreams as it does during a mind-expanding drug trip.

Psychedelic drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms can profoundly alter the way we experience the world, but little is known about what physically happens in the brain.

In a study published in the journal Human Brain Mapping, researchers examined the brain effects of psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms, using data from brain scans of volunteers who had been injected with the drug.

“A good way to understand how the brain works is to perturb the system in a marked and novel way. Psychedelic drugs do precisely this and so are powerful tools for exploring what happens in the brain when consciousness is profoundly altered,” said Dr Enzo Tagliazucchi, who led the study at Germany’s Goethe University.

Magic mushrooms grow naturally around the world and have been widely used since ancient times for religious rites and also for recreation.

British researchers have been exploring the potential of psilocybin to alleviate severe forms of depression in people who don’t respond to other treatments, and obtained some positive results from early-stage experiments.

In the United States, scientists have seen positive results in trials using MDMA, a pure form of the party drug ecstasy, in treating post-traumatic stress disorder.

DREAM-LIKE STATE

People who use psychedelic drugs often describe “expanded consciousness”, including vivid imagination and dream-like states.

To explore the biological basis of these experiences, Tagliazucchi’s team analyzed brain imaging data from 15 volunteers who were given psilocybin intravenously while they lay in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner.

The volunteers were scanned under the influence of psilocybin and when they had been injected with a placebo, or dummy drug. The researchers looked at fluctuations in what is called the blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal, which tracks activity levels in the brain.

They found that with psilocybin, activity in the more primitive brain network linked to emotional thinking became more pronounced, with several parts of the network – such as the hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex – active at the same time. This pattern is similar to when people are dreaming.

They also found that volunteers on psilocybin had more disjointed and uncoordinated activity in the brain network that is linked to high-level thinking, including self-consciousness.

“People often describe taking psilocybin as producing a dreamlike state and our findings have, for the first time, provided a physical representation for the experience in the brain,” said Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial College London’s department of medicine, who also worked on the study.

“I was fascinated to see similarities between the pattern of brain activity in a psychedelic state and the pattern of brain activity during dream sleep, especially as both involve the primitive areas of the brain linked to emotions and memory.”

Thank you for sharing that, Rad. What does one do when the structure of their understanding changes in such a way that they now see clearly that many so called truths are actually lies? Is there an evolutionary state in which this occurs or is this a phenomenon that can happen in any evolutionary state?

Thank you for sharing that, Rad. What does one do when the structure of their understanding changes in such a way that they now see clearly that many so called truths are actually lies? Is there an evolutionary state in which this occurs or is this a phenomenon that can happen in any evolutionary state?

God Bless,Sunyata

Hi Sunyata,

First, for that to happen the Soul would, within itself, desire for that realization to occur. Nonetheless, when such a thing is realized it still can be quite shocking to the Soul and, for some, cause a complete alienation/ disorientation to 'reality': the reality defined by the consensus, and the reality that has been created by the Soul's own 'beliefs'. When something is taken away from a Soul, whatever it is, it does need to be replaced with something so that the Soul can then have a new anchor for itself that allows it to stabilize and feel relatively secure.

The breaking free from consensus beliefs that are not rooted in actual truth as defined by natural laws can begin as early as the 1st stage individuated. Typically though this is just the beginning of the 'chipping away' process versus a wholesale collapse of all the lies that are considered to be true by the consensus of any society.

Relative to personal beliefs about oneself, that are also lies, beliefs projected onto others that are also lies, can occur from the consensus state forwards.

The breaking free from consensus beliefs that are not rooted in actual truth as defined by natural laws can begin as early as the 1st stage individuated. Typically though this is just the beginning of the 'chipping away' process versus a wholesale collapse of all the lies that are considered to be true by the consensus of any society.

Hi Cat, Linda, Kristin, Skywalker, Robin, and Katherine and anyone else who wishes to participate in this new thread on Saturn

The decision has been taken to not focus on writing the book on geodetics, the Soul's Journey Through Time, at this time. So I am thinking of restarting the Saturn thread. Please let me know if you are still interested in working on this Saturn thread.

Ok, let's go ahead and give it a go then. We will start up again sometime next week, and I would like to review the first segment that was done how Saturn correlates to the structural conditioning of the consciousness of the Soul. This would then involve creating more examples of how this works. For example, Saturn in Leo squaring Venus in Scorpio, and so on.

After that I would like to focus on how Saturn, Capricorn, and the 10th House correlate to the work function within any society, country, tribe that is necessary for the entire group to be sustained because of the work necessary to do so. This will also involve the natural trinity to Virgo, Mercury, and the 6th House, Taurus, Venus, and the 2nd House. Within this we can examine how the 12th House, Pisces, and Neptune, given it's natural polarity to the 6th, Virgo, and Mercury, and the higher octave ruler of Venus, the natural ruler of the 2nd and Taurus, Neptune correlates to a higher work purpose that can be called Karma Yoga: doing the work of the Source in the context or agency of the work itself.

From there we will explore through examples all the other archetypes that correlate with Saturn, Capricorn, and the 10th House.

This all sounds great to me, especially very inspired to work on this correlation to Karma Yoga as I have not integrated this understanding into the chart before -another example of how EA deepens an archetype, so cool and SO meaningful.

Sounds good to me, I think that in the case of working on a specific house and sign placement of Saturn or a specific aspect, that it might be better to give different assignments to each one of us, in order to make it more interesting/complete for us to work on and for others that may be learning. For example if working with Aspects, each one of us can do an assignment with Saturn aspecting a different planet

I am not sure how many practice charts I can commit myself to.I feel I would like to do only what I can manage to do along the way. Is this okay with you? Like others, I am not that well, and need to watch my energy levels.....

I am interested in the natural Earth trinity, and in learning more from you.